Sports

Popularity of Quidditch is Sky High

"Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling invented Quidditch, but college athletes have made the sport real—and real fun.

In the Harry Potter books, young wizards regularly compete in rousing games of Quidditch. They fly on broomsticks while trying to score goals and capture the Golden Snitch, a magical ball with wings.

I read the first two books in the series and didn’t once think, “It would sure be fun to take up Quidditch.” After all, there are flying broomsticks and winged golden balls to consider.

But a few creative college students had bigger imaginations than I. And that’s why you can now spot athletes around the country racing across playing fields … with broomsticks between their legs. Here in the Puget Sound area, the University of Washington maintains a Quidditch team, Seattle Pacific University students and UW Bothell students plan to start teams, and a number of college graduates have been discussing forming their own league.

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Quidditch for Muggles (in Harry Potter lingo, those who aren’t magically inclined; in the real world, we call them “people”) began in Vermont, back in 2005. A few Middlebury College freshmen bocce ball players became bored with the Italian lawn game. What if, they wondered, we turned fictional Quidditch into a real sport. 

Doing so turned out to be a fairly simple adaptation. Like Harry Potter’s Quidditch, the Muggle version involves players called Chasers trying to throw Quaffles (volleyballs) through hoops. At the same time, defensive players called Beaters try to stop the scorers by throwing Bludgers (dodge balls) at them.

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Of course, the flight component of the game proved a bit trickier to replicate. Instead, all players run around with, yes, broomsticks between their legs. In Harry Potter books, Quidditch ends when someone catches the Snitch–a golden ball with wings. Though Quidditch players here on Earth tried using a variety of Snitches, including remote-controlled model airplanes, they’ve settled on a neutral player dressed in gold with a tennis ball hanging in a sock attached to her or his back. The Snitch runs around, trying to avoid players looking to seize the tennis ball.

Quidditch teams typically create their own uniform colors and designs. Many put atypical numbers on the back of their jerseys, such as “3/4” or “Pi.”

Though the elements of Quidditch may seem fantastical, there’s no mistaking the game’s athletic requirements. Players run, throw, dodge and tackle. Since they hold broomsticks between their legs, throwing and catching must be done one-handed. Games provide no set timeouts or breaks, meaning players need endurance. The most competitive Quidditch teams often incorporate weight lifting and group runs into their training. Alicia Radford said her background as a basketball player and track runner helps her compete in Quidditch.

“People might think Quidditch is not an athletic activity,” said Radford, who started the Quidditch team at the University of Washington and is the COO of the International Quidditch Association. “But you definitely need stamina.”

At the same time, a sport based on a whimsical literary invention also can attract people who aren’t typical athletes. Radford said she has seen some people show up to practice simply because they are Potter fans. Many of them end up embracing the sport.

“It turns people into athletes who never were before in life,” Radford said.

Quidditch’s unique combination of athleticism and imagination has spurred the sport’s fast growth. By the end of 2005, 10 intramural Quidditch teams had formed at Middlebury. The next year, Quidditch began spreading to a number of East Coast schools. In 2007, the International Quidditch Association was born.

Radford brought Quidditch to the UW in 2008 after she saw a news segment on CBS featuring Northeastern colleges playing Quidditch, and decided to replicate the concept in Seattle. 

“It seemed like such a fun sport,” Radford said. “So many people in my generation grew up reading Harry Potter.”

Radford posted the CBS video, created a Facebook event, and invited all her friends. Pretty soon, the team attracted a solid number of people dedicated to practicing every Saturday and to traveling to games.

Quidditch around the country continues to grow, too. Radford estimates that about 200 colleges and 100 high schools in the U.S. have teams. The International Quidditch Association also regularly fields requests from college graduates who want to start leagues. Since the sport started on university campuses so recently, Radford expects this latter group to continue to grow, as more Quidditch players finish school.

“There’s no shortage of people interested in starting new teams,” Radford said.

The Quidditch World Cup, once held at Middlebury, moved to New York City last year. In November, 46 teams attended and competed. Middlebury won for the fourth year in a row. The tournament will take place in New York again this November. Though the International Quidditch Association has invited Potter author J.K. Rowling to the World Cup, she has yet to make an appearance.

Regardless of the future popularity of the Potter books and movies, Radford believes Quidditch will have staying power.

“Harry Potter gets people interested in Quidditch initially, but the reason they stay is because it’s such a powerful sport on its own,” Radford said.

 

To watch Quidditch in action, check out the International Quidditch Association’s video here.


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